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Re: [RC] The Church of the Hoof - desertrydr1Amen. jeri-----Original Message----- From: Lynn White <lynndeepoo@xxxxxxxxx> To: steph <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tue, 19 Aug 2008 3:22 pm Subject: [RC] The Church of the Hoof It’s been an interesting read, this shoe vs. barefoot theme. One truth about
endurance is that since it’s a whole horse sport there is always something to
learn about and obsess over. I think I’ve mastered the mechanics of the equine
gut so I suppose now it’s time to start turning the pages of the equine foot.
I’ve been a shoe fan for years without really knowing why. I always just
thought that horses needed shoes and to be frank, it’s easy to just nail shoes
on and forget about it. I never had much of a problem with shoes and didn’t
give it much thought. I didn’t think about the mechanics of lower leg movement,
the force a horse exerts on the front end, the stresses and strains of tendons,
or coffin bones or any of that soundness stuff. I never had a problem with it
so I just didn’t worry about it. I was a default member of the “Shod
Denomination.”
Then I watched this old silent 1925 documentary called “Grass” in which
the
nomadic Bakhtiari people in Southwest Iran migrate over the Zagros mountains
twice a year to get to their grazing grounds…on unshod horses. Now that is some
serious-ass-rocky-country. Their trip makes the Tevis look like a walk in the
park (I think it’s still done, but most the people have moved on to the oil
fields). I also have a couple photos from the 1920’s of Kurds riding their
unshod horses on some pretty rough looking country. The Turkmen did some
incredible things with their unshod Akhal-Tekes. The Cossacks did some major
ass-whooping with their unshod horses, and it’s because their horses were unshod
that they were able to defeat Napoleon’s shod cavalry during the winter months.
Genghis Kahn almost conquered the world with unshod horses. Shoes obviously had
their place in warfare, but they were no guarantee that battles would be won.
The succcess
of a cavalry all boiled down to how the horses were kept and managed for the
climate and type of warfare.
Back off that tangent on on to the subject: What furthered my “enlightenment”
was that suddenly my mare developed this rather violent aversion to having nails
driven in her rear left foot. She had to be sedated to be shod...and I mean
almost falling over sedated. So shoeing became a stressful endeavor of
coordinating a vet and a farrier to come to my place simultaneously. It was
at
this time I started seeing shoeless horses at rides and heard all sorts of
miraculous stories about unshod horses from the “Barefoot Denomination.”
This whole debate of the shod vs. barefoot reminds me so much of differing
interpretations of the Bible. Anyone that has spent any amount of time in an
evangelical church can totally relate to this. It’s just about as emotional.
The only difference is the opinion concerning who is going to Hell and whose
horse is going lame.
But what it all this has done is resulted in people doing their own research and
learning about the huge myriad of variables involved in hoof care. Yes, I am
planning on the shoeless route with my mare because she has feet like steel and
I live in a pretty arid climate. I’m a mile chaser so placement isn’t a big
deal to me. If I need to go slow I go slow. I’ve still got a lot to learn
about hoof balance and the mechanics of soundness. But I think we are on the
right course. I don’t know if my colt will need shoes or not, but when we get
there at least I will have done my homework and will be able to make a pretty
sound decision (pardon the pun). I plan on being a member of the “Hoof Health
Denomination.” It should be a pretty lively place to be with lots of arguing,
and back and forth with everything being subject to question
. But we’ll learn a
lot I think.
Lynn
"Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people"
-W.C. Fields
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